The city of Denver spent nearly $500,000 in December on 1,900 Greyhound bus tickets to send immigrants to 35 states and Washington DC, documents obtained by The Denver Gazette show.

The majority of immigrants were bused to New York and Illinois.

These costs do not reflect those bused in January, nor state expenditures for its charter buses.

Roughly 4,300 immigrants — mostly from South and Central America — have arrived in Denver seeking shelter since Dec. 9.

City officials anticipate Denver will spend about $3 million to respond to the humanitarian crisis. Mayor Michael B. Hancock has said the crisis put a financial strain on the city.

It has also strained relations with the Democratic mayors of New York City and Chicago, who have complained publicly about the transfers to their cities — which also have experienced an influx of immigrants.

On Jan. 10, the Denver Gazette requested a breakdown of Denver’s spending on the immigrant response to the City and County of Denver’s Joint Information Center under the Colorado Open Records Act.

Center officials provided the responsive records Monday.

Here is a breakdown of $2.5 million of the costs:

• Shelter: $81,797

• Food: $190,384

• Transportation: $492,208

• Personnel: $1,782,610

After nearly 100 immigrants were dropped off at Union Station downtown in the first week of December without warning, the city set up an emergency shelter at one of its recreation centers. With immigrants continuing to pour into Denver, the city set up a second emergency shelter.

Hancock said he hopes to shutter the emergency shelters soon, but has not yet provided a timeline.

For weeks, state and city officials — as well as immigrant advocates — have said that Denver was not the final destination for most of those coming to the Mile High City. Officials surmised the major east–west interstate corridor that connects Denver to Baltimore is what drew immigrants to the city.

As many as 70% are believed to be stopping in Denver on their way to somewhere else.

City records indicate the most popular states for immigrants were: New York (374 tickets), Illinois (401) and Florida (247).

Georgia (134) and Texas (90) rounded out the top five.

These newly arrived immigrants chose more than 100 different U.S. cities as their final destination, after making a treacherous journey through South and Central America that in many instances took four months, according to immigrants The Denver Gazette spoke to. Many of them arriving in Denver were unprepared for the frigid weather, often wearing little more than sweatshirts.

Their preference appears to be larger metropolitan areas.

Immigrants’ top city choices were: Chicago (399 tickets), New York City (345), Atlanta (122), Miami (95) and Orlando, Florida (95).

Emails obtained in a separate open records act request show Denver did not coordinate with, or warn, other city officials before busing immigrants to them.

It’s unclear how much advance notice the Polis administration provided.

Earlier this month, Gov. Jared Polis stepped in to help Denver with charter buses after sub-zero temperatures stymied local efforts to transport immigrants out of Denver to their desired destination, creating a backlog.

The move provoked a national controversy akin to when Gov. Ron DeSantis last year transported immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, which is not typically a destination city. Many described the move by the Florida governor as a political message meant for Northeastern Democrats.

The reaction to Polis’ intervention was swift.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and New York City Mayor Eric Adams complained publicly about the busing and urged the governor in a Jan. 7 letter to halt the practice.

The Polis administration ceased busing immigrants days later.

The number of new arrivals has significantly tapered off since the beginning of the new year.

In the final two weeks of 2022, Denver averaged 153 overnight arrivals every day. Over the past two weeks, the city has averaged fewer than 50 new immigrants each night.

On Tuesday, Denver saw the fewest number of new arrivals — 11 — since the city began tracking the number of immigrants new to Denver.